Prismatic

Tower

We set off first thing in the morning after eating a hastily prepared sandwich with onions and thin slices of meat. We bid the owner of the inn goodbye. “Just remember that you are welcome here anytime!” she said as she waved goodbye. The owner was an old lady who managed the inn alone. We were sad when we set off. I left a few recipes I made on my own for her to try.

We went on to our destination. We opened the portal as the Lutins instructed. A glossy green light welcomed us. As we entered the portal, in my peripheral vision I thought I saw a figure shining a bright white from a distance behind the trees. The portal completely closed behind us.

We were in Tregelheim at last. It almost looked like the market we went through before except that it had a tower within its walls at the center. The tower was huge with multicolored layers. It looked like a triangular prism pointing towards us. It bathed in ethereal light as it shined from top to bottom. At the entrance, we were greeted by a Lutin with a triangular glistening crown. “Welcome to Tregelheim! I thought you were never coming. Thank you for granting my request”, he looked up at us and smiled a half crescent. “Oh, where are my manners? I am Konungroi, the ruler of this kingdom.”

“Hi there your, um, highness, I guess?”, said Tyke with a bit of confusion, “Anyway, my name is Tyke, the girl next to me is Aina, the cloaked guy is Bry and the girl next to him is Jo. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Okay, enough introductions”, Bry interrupted, “I want to know if my sister is in there and the reason you called for us here.” Bry had an intense look on his face, all hell broke loose.

The Lutin shivered in fear. He composed himself, “Right. Well, you see, we have a problem. One of our prisoners is wrecking havoc at the top floor of the tower. You need to stop him at all costs before he destroys the essence of all magic”, he said in a worried tone.

“How about my sister, where is she?” he asked fiercely through his teeth.

“I believe that the prisoner has her at that floor as well. I don’t know the reason why he needed the girl”, he said calmly.

“Wait a minute. I thought you have a tight security around here. How did he escape?”, I interrupted, giving Bry time to cool down.

“Well, they meddled with our security. It has been always thought that our security was flawless even before being cast to this dimension”, he confessed, “I’m afraid that we made the same mistake again. We underestimated their abilities. I thought they would not break through.”

“So the legends were true!” Tyke concluded.

“How fascinating, you already knew what became of us”, he eyed Tyke with curiosity.

“As he said, legends”, Bry thickened his tone on the emphasis, “People had been going on around it.”

The Konungroi was deep in thought, skeptic but he let it go. “Hmm… Well, shall we?” He led us inside Tregelheim, “This is the tower and the base is where it all starts. You have to prove yourself in every floor that you are worthy to pass the next. Each floor has its own rules and such rules can be negotiated provided that it is reasonable”, he took some breaths, he is old after all, “Failure to meet the requirements in any floor as viewed by the assessor will ban you from ever entering this kingdom again. The decision of the assessor is absolute and final and cannot be changed by any rule. Your memories of everything about us will be erased but I have faith in you and I believe that you will succeed.”

“That was an awesome speech there”, Aina sounded bored, “Is it done yet? I wanna look at the gears they have here. Do you accept human currency?”

I heard a little gnash from the old man. He steadied his pulse and regained his composure. “I was getting to that”, he was quite irritated by the remark. “Around you are assortment of stalls that provide you what you need. Be warned though, they might lower your attribute such as strength but might enhance others.” He continued, “The first item on the stalls is free. The next ones might cause you some difficulties in the latter parts of the tower. And no, any currency from the outside has no value here. Choose wisely.”

“What kind of rules are those?” Aina was sarcastic. “Free things always have something shady in them”, she shook her head in disappointment.

“It’s better than nothing”, Tyke seemed optimistic. “We might have an upper hand later on.”

“He’s right. We already know what our own attributes are, right?” I reminded them, “It would only be natural to choose the ones that will affect the least likely part of our attributes.”

“Okay Ms. Smarty-pants, you go first”, Aina said, still sarcastic.

I looked around the stalls. They looked exactly like the ones in the market except that they had no names and no vendors, just illustrations attached on their heads. There are assortments of potions, armors and weapons, among others. I went to the weaponry and grabbed a Short Staff because it felt light. I also felt that my accuracy decreased by a pinch but felt an increase in mentality. Next, I went to the armory and chose the Angelic Vest for its durability and lightness. I felt my magic lessen by a little notch. Lastly, I went to the accessories shop. I chose the Philosopher’s Eye, a miniature frosty green chained ball, for my ears and felt my mind sharpen. I also felt my luck decrease by a margin.

It was Bry’s turn to choose next. He went to the armory where he chose the Witch’s Breastplate, made from a witch’s hair and nails, and felt his mana dip a little lower and he gripped his hands for strength. He then went to the jeweler and picked up Dragon’s Heart that was a rusty and scaled stone. His vision sharpened but he felt a slight decrease in his critical insight. His last place was the weaponry. He chose Wizard’s Wisdom, which was a stiff wooden wand, and felt his magic increase but felt a slight pain in his chest lowering his health.

Aina was next in line. She only went to the jeweler and picked up Treacherous Soul Stone. It was charred and had a bad omen around it. She felt a slight pang on her arm which had a bite mark of a beast. She felt a great surge of mana inside of her. She did not want to get anything else and thought that this was enough.

Tyke was the last person to pick. He went to the accessories shop. He picked up Twisted Judgement Pendant which was a lime green stone with a silver chain. He felt a slight reduction on defense but felt an increase in stamina. He then went to the weaponry and chose Murakata, a light long axe that doubles as a sword. He felt a slight dip on his mana but felt an increase in strength. Lastly, he went to the armory. He grabbed Famine’s Fortitude which was a platemail full of thorns. It gave him wisdom with a little sacrifice on stealth.

We got all we needed. We faced the tower with determined eyes. It had a sparking color from red to violet for the first seven floors. For the rest of the three floors, they started from a lilac and ended up in black, shining an ethereal glow.

We entered the double door of a spicy red shade. Before the door closed mechanically behind us, I saw another team of the same number talking to Konungroi.

Inside the first floor was a triangular room of red walls. The flat surface that we walked on was shiny granite. The ceiling cannot be seen, I could only see a dark hollow light. Groups of people of different race filled the room. There were bustling shades of laughter and impatience. As we entered, a group of unknown species approached us. They looked like a jolly bunch except for one at the back. A feline-like figure grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the front in greeting. “Hi!” she jumped up and down still holding my hand, “I’m Chella, the grouchy one is Alele, this cheeky girl is Kiera and the tall one is Akarus. What are your names?”

Other than her feline characteristics, Chella was wearing a cape and a champion’s belt. She had short fangs and a slight slice on the cheeks. Kiera was placed on her right. She was a pale human who had rounded eyeglasses that fit well with her mellow yellow eyes. She had a metal book on hand and a short hardened scepter. Akarus was wearing a thick closed helm with small horns. I can’t see his face but his hands were charcoal black. He had a big molten crystal placed midway between his chest and stomach. He was placed behind between the girls. Alele had reptilian scales covering him from head to toe. He had no tail unlike Chella. He had a slight brown complexion like a human. He had an engraved shining topaz ring on his left hand and had twisted spiral silver and platinum for earrings. They were all wearing traditional woven ethnic clothing underneath all wearable items.

“Hi! I’m Jo, behind me is Bry, on my right is Tyke and next to him is Aina”, I replied. I thought that it was only polite to return the greeting.

“Nice to meet you”, Chella eyed everyone and dropped my hand at last. “I hope we all make it to the next round.”

“Uh, thanks”, I tried a convincing smile, “Do you know anything about this? We are sort of lost.”

“The old fart didn’t explain to you the technical stuff huh?”, Akarus was smug, “Here’s the thing, we don’t know much about this aside from what the old fart told us”

“I don’t know if we were tricked but we were sent here by Konungroi through the Lutins”, Kiera seemed disappointed. “I didn’t know that this was a competition.”

“This looks suspicious. Why send a lot of people when he can send one?” Tyke opened his thought.

Alele kept silent. He was looking away from us. I couldn’t tell if he was listening or gathering some information from the crowd.

“Is there something else up there besides the prisoner in question or is he just afraid of using his own resources to take him down?” Bry was in deep thought.

Alele finally answered, “I think they are short on personnel”, he studied the ambiance of the room, “I sense that there is not much of their kind to take action on this crisis.”

“Why use this system though? Why not just send all of us to the top?” I asked curiously.

Before anyone could answer, we heard a sudden blare of horns accompanied by an unseen orchestra. The rusty movement of gears could be heard from beyond the dark abyss. It was ear-piercing. All conversation stopped and dead silence took its place. Everyone was looking up at the darkness above. We waited patiently as we saw a triangular prism capsule drop slowly to the base. The machine wheezed to a stop.

“Well, I guess the show is about to start”, Tyke said with high enthusiasm.

“It seems like it”, seconded by Aina.

Chella’s team cut the conversation with us and wished us good luck. I wished them the same.

We set ourselves in place, eyes set on the capsule ahead of us. I felt a chilly sensation cross my back. I looked back and saw nothing. I shrugged it off and focused on what lied ahead.